Summary
My lab researches the immune response to vaccines, in order to prevent respiratory infections.
Every breath we take, we inhale a vast array of bacteria, viruses and fungi and yet we do not get infected every time we breath in. My group aims to understand what prevents symptomatic respiratory infections, focussing on the immune response.
To answer why we get infected, we have developed a range of in vivo and in vitro models of infection and vaccination in early life, including RSV, Influenza, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii and non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (ntHi).
I did my Post-Doc at Imperial College with Prof Peter Openshaw, working on RSV. For my PhD I worked on the development of a tetanus vaccine expressed in the chloroplasts of transgenic tobacco plants in the labs of Professors Peter Nixon and Gordon Dougan, also at Imperial College. I studied genetics at Downing College, University of Cambridge.
Science communication
As well as working on the immune response to vaccines, I write about science. I have written a popular science book: Infectious
I blog about science and academic careers. I have written for Nature, Science, Times Higher Education and The Guardian.
During the COVID19 lockdown, I wrote a weekly diary for the Nature Career Column.
I have been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Breakfast, BBC online, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Mail and CGTN.
Contract research
I have experience of working with biotech companies to perform pre-clinical assessment of vaccines to RSV and influenza. This uses our well established infection models and we are open to further collaborations. We are open for new collaborations.
Members of Group
David Stirling, PhD Student working on DNA vaccines with Touchlight Genetics
Ziyin Wang, PhD Student working on sickness behaviours after lung infection
Hadi Sallah, PhD Student working on vaccine formulation with AqDot
Lucy Mosscrop, PhD Student working on RSV F protein evolution
Rob Cunliffe, PostDoc working on DNA vaccines
Chubicka Thomas, PostDoc working on RSV
Maya Valarmathy, PostDoc working on humanised antibodies
Sophie Higham, PostDoc working on antibacterial vaccines
Alumni
Dr Jacqueline McDonald (RA), worked on signatures of Vaccine safety
Dr Adam Walters (RA), worked on DNA vaccine constructs
Dr Laura Lambert (RA), worked on RNA vaccines
Dr Alex Badamchi Zadeh (PhD Student), co-supervised with Robin Shattock
Dr Matthew Siggins (RA), worked on ntHi vaccines
Dr Ryan Russell (PhD Student), worked on Novel adjuvants
Dr Simren Gill (PhD and Fellowship), worked on Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Ms Miko Zhong (MPhil), worked on neonatal immune response
Dr Katya Kinnear (PhD and Post Doc), worked on DNA vaccines with Touchlight Genetics
Ms Victoria Gould (RA), worked on IgA response to influenza
Dr Charanjit Singh (RA), worked on Ciliate derived vaccines
Dr Helen Groves (PhD student), worked on effect of infection on microbiome
Dr David Busse (PhD student), worked on ISG function in RSV
Dr Jonny Brown, (Post-Doc) worked on anti-viral vaccines
Miss Felicity Zhang (RT) worked on RSV clinical isolates
Miss Emily Brown developed new drugs targeting bacterial glucose uptake
Miss Katie Flight (RT) worked on CEPI RNA vaccine project (co-supervised by Robin Shattock)
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Tregoning J, 2023, How Dark Souls and Darth Revan helped me to make sense of my professorship., Nature
Tregoning J, 2021, Coronavirus diaries: the COVID 19., Nature
Tregoning JS, 2020, First human efficacy study of a plant-derived influenza vaccine, The Lancet, Vol:396, ISSN:0140-6736, Pages:1464-1465
Tregoning JS, Brown ES, Cheeseman HM, et al., 2020, Vaccines for COVID-19, Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Vol:202, ISSN:0009-9104, Pages:162-192
Tregoning J, 2020, Coronavirus diaries: to be a scientist, Nature, Vol:581, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:226-226
Turner P, Abdulla AF, Cole M, et al., 2019, Differences in nasal IgA responses to influenza vaccine strains after Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV) immunisation in children, Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Vol:199, ISSN:0009-9104, Pages:109-118
Lindsey BB, Jagne YJ, Armitage EP, et al., 2019, Effect of a Russian-backbone live-attenuated influenza vaccine with an updated pandemic H1N1 strain on shedding and immunogenicity among children in The Gambia: an open-label, observational, phase 4 study, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Vol:7, ISSN:2213-2600, Pages:665-676
Tregoning JS, Mallia P, 2019, Modulating airway glucose to reduce respiratory infections, Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine, Vol:13, ISSN:1747-6348, Pages:121-124
Tregoning JS, Mallia P, Webber J, et al., 2018, Role of airway glucose in bacterial infections in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Vol:142, ISSN:0091-6749, Pages:815-823.e6
Tregoning J, 2018, How will you judge me if not by impact factor?, Nature, Vol:558, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:345-345
Groves HT, Cuthbertson L, James P, et al., 2018, Respiratory Disease following Viral Lung Infection Alters the Murine Gut Microbiota, Frontiers in Immunology, Vol:9, ISSN:1664-3224
Groves HT, McDonald JU, Langat P, et al., 2018, Mouse Models of Influenza Infection with Circulating Strains to Test Seasonal Vaccine Efficacy, Frontiers in Immunology, Vol:9, ISSN:1664-3224
Tregoning J, 2018, From parade ground to PI., Science, Vol:359, Pages:362-362
Vogel AB, Lambert L, Kinnear E, et al., 2017, Self-Amplifying RNA Vaccines Give Equivalent Protection against Influenza to mRNA Vaccines but at Much Lower Doses., Molecular Therapy, Vol:26, ISSN:1525-0016, Pages:446-455
Kinnear E, Lambert L, McDonald JU, et al., 2017, Airway T cells protect against RSV infection in the absence of antibody, Mucosal Immunology, Vol:11, ISSN:1933-0219, Pages:249-256
Gould VMW, Francis JN, Anderson KJ, et al., 2017, Nasal IgA provides protection against human influenza challenge in volunteers with low serum influenza antibody titre, Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol:8, ISSN:1664-302X
McDonald JU, Zhong Z, Groves HT, et al., 2017, Inflammatory responses to influenza vaccination at the extremes of age., Immunology, Vol:151, ISSN:0019-2805, Pages:451-463
Tregoning J, 2017, No researcher is too junior to fix science, Nature, Vol:545, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:7-7
Mcdonald J, Kaforou M, Clare S, et al., 2016, A Simple Screening Approach To Prioritize Genes for Functional Analysis Identifies a Role for Interferon Regulatory Factor 7 in the Control of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease, Msystems, Vol:1, ISSN:2379-5077
Gill SK, Hui K, Farne H, et al., 2016, Increased airway glucose increases airway bacterial load in hyperglycaemia, Scientific Reports, Vol:6, ISSN:2045-2322
Russell RF, McDonald JU, Lambert L, et al., 2016, Use of the microparticle Nano-SiO2 as an adjuvant to boost vaccine immune responses in neonatal mice against influenza., Journal of Virology, Vol:90, ISSN:1098-5514, Pages:4735-4744
Siggins MK, Gill SK, Langford PR, et al., 2015, PHiD-CV induces anti-Protein D antibodies but does not augment pulmonary clearance of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in mice, Vaccine, Vol:33, ISSN:1873-2518, Pages:4954-4961
Kinnear E, Caproni LJ, Tregoning JS, 2015, A Comparison of Red Fluorescent Proteins to Model DNA Vaccine Expression by Whole Animal In Vivo Imaging, PLOS One, Vol:10, ISSN:1932-6203
Russell RF, McDonald JU, Ivanova M, et al., 2015, Partialattenuation of respiratory syncytial virus with a deletion of a small hydrophobic gene Is associated with elevated interleukin-1β responses, Journal of Virology, Vol:89, ISSN:1098-5514, Pages:8974-8981
Walters AA, Kinnear E, Shattock RJ, et al., 2014, Comparative analysis of enzymatically produced novel linear DNA constructs with plasmids for use as DNA vaccines, Gene Therapy, Vol:21, ISSN:1476-5462, Pages:645-652
Tregoning JS, Wang BL, McDonald JU, et al., 2013, Neonatal antibody responses are attenuated by interferon-γ produced by NK and T cells during RSV infection, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol:110, ISSN:0027-8424, Pages:5576-5581
Chapters
Tregoning JS, Kinnear E, 2014, Using Plasmids as DNA Vaccines for Infectious Diseases., Plasmids: Biology and Impact in Biotechnology and Discovery, ASMscience, ISBN:9781555818975